Apple's News app may soon enable iPhone owners to have the ability to access paid news articles. A report from Reuters stated that Apple Inc. plans to make paid-subscription content available on its news app for those with mobiles operating on iOS 9.
This would allow them to read more articles from paywall sites such as The New York Times, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. Apple's announcement also opens the doors for subscription-only publications to sell their own contents to News readers.
However, publishers will have to share only an excerpt of their contents that they think will drive readers to their paid sites, or they can offer their content entirely free.
With this app that incorporates access to paid subscriptions, readers will now be able to pass through the paywall and read the whole article using the News app.
"Ensuring subscription mechanisms in our off-platform distribution partnerships is critical," says Katie Vanneck-Smith, chief customer officer of Dow Jones to Reuters. The Wall Street Journal is posting a few of their articles for free on Apple's News every day.
This method will distinguish Apple News from Instant Articles news of Facebook, since the latter does not provide subscriber-only content. It seems that Apple will get the chance it needs in differentiating itself from an increasing number of tech companies offering online apps.
News publishers are now trying to find ways of working with Facebook and Apple, since these two tech giants are effective news content distributors to millions of users around the world. However, they are also getting in between publishers and their respective readers.
With paid content accessible to Apple News, the tech giant will enable publishers to sustain their relationships with their readers and maybe attract new subscribers as well. But the exact details of how the subscription mechanism will work were not yet given by the tech company.
